“I don’t know if you’re being controlled or just mentally unstable and don’t know what the h*ll you’re doing...”

Lu Ce looked at the corpses lying on the ground, then at the group of people across from him who had completely lost their minds, and threatened them.

“Ahhh ahhh ahhh!”

What answered him was a roar that didn’t sound human—these “prisoners” were nothing short of evil spirits now.

Well… starving evil spirits, to be exact.

These guys who had once been terrified by Lu Ce’s torment were now acting like they didn’t even know what fear was, staring at him like a bunch of zombies.

Lu Ce set Hell Roar to its lowest setting. If he needed to clean up this group of minions, he didn’t want to waste too much energy.

“Since I can’t be sure if there are any innocents among you, I’ll give you a chance.” As he spoke, Lu Ce even mimed a loading action with Hell Roar in hand.

“I’ll count to three. If you manage to return to your rooms, I’ll still consider you human.”

He glanced around and realized no one seemed to understand him. The ones closest to him were still moving forward.

The expression on his mask shifted slightly. (￣︶￣)

“Three!”

Bang bang!

Two gunshots rang out, and two figures dropped. Hell Roar’s charge increased by 1.5%.

Hmm?

Looks like the energy gain from each kill varies.

The value of a life was now clearly priced and differentiated.

“What’s wrong with these people? What the h*ll kind of brainwashing did you do to them?”

Behind Lu Ce, the five-meter-tall giant—Tom—was pretty much fully formed.

Lu Ce turned around, looking at the hulking figure, and asked,

“Jie jie jie… I just put a little something in their heads, that’s all...”

“You’ve got a real humanitarian streak, huh?”

At this point, Tom’s voice had lost all its original mechanical calmness. Now he sounded like a full-blown lunatic.

“Heh.” Lu Ce sneered. Figures. No wonder they say you’re the most messed-up one here.

Everyone here was completely under your control, being toyed with—what illness? You’re the real disease.

“Pathetic. And you call yourself insane? You’re just some delusional guy, hiding in your little fantasy world for self-comfort.”

Tom: ?

That giant metal body froze for a second—like he couldn’t even process it.

What does “and you call yourself insane” even mean? Is being insane supposed to be a badge of honor now?

“You’ve controlled all these fools, so what’s the point of the game? Everything you’re doing here is just playing with yourself.”

“Playing god in front of a bunch of brainwashed idiots? Please. You’re just another toy in this Game.”

With that mask on, Lu Ce’s words cut sharper than ever—spitting pure venom.

And that last sentence? It hit Tom right where it hurt!

You’re just another toy in this Game... You’re just another toy in this Game...

“Oh, and you’re not?” Tom snapped back.

“Play? Oh, there’s definitely play. Those of you who came later, I didn’t plant anything in your heads.”

“Watching them resist, watching them fall—I think it’s f***ing great!”

“And you! You’re gonna be the most fun toy of them all!”

“Call me the Great Tom!!”

You could tell Tom was really triggered now. With a roar, all the other patients lunged at Lu Ce at once.

At the same time, the strong electromagnet on his body activated, pulling everything to him, flattening chunks of metal into his armor!

Even with the strength of numbers, Lu Ce couldn’t afford to get careless. While leaping around the twisted corridor, his red weapon let out roar after roar, reaping lives one after another.

Every time he got hit—Pain Points increased.

Every time he killed—Hell Roar charged up.

Lu Ce: getting hit and hitting back. Double win!

“So the players didn’t get anything implanted in their heads...”

Lu Ce stepped on a bump in the wall, adjusted Hell Roar to third gear—energy level at 5%.

“Jiu Tian! Do me a favor and find a way to release the rest of the players!”

Jiu Tian: ?

Huh? Me?

Jiu Tian hadn’t expected to end up in a fight like this. The fact he was still alive in the middle of this chaos was already a miracle.

“I believe in you, comrade! Time to shine!”

A glowing orb of terrifying energy formed at the muzzle of Hell Roar as Lu Ce finished charging it up—and then fired it straight at the enemy!

“Got it!”

Jiu Tian saw the battlefield and knew he couldn’t really help directly. He bit his lip, nodded, and pulled out some bizarre-looking tool from who-knows-where, then rushed into the room beside them.

He’d done some prep based on previous Game Instances, and since escape scenarios were common, he had already exchanged for some useful tools in advance.

Boom!

That shell from Lu Ce’s gun floated like it had homed in before exploding in a blast even more powerful than before. Red light clung to the cyberpunk-esque metal body like glue, erupting in constant explosions.

The five-meter-tall mech raised its arms in front of itself. It looked like it blocked the shot, but that tower-like body turned glowing red from the heat. Metal on the edges even started to melt!

Tom staggered back under the blast, then dropped to one knee.

He looked up with a hint of fear at the weapon in Lu Ce’s hands. The man himself might be annoying, but that gun? That thing was the real threat.

Then Tom clenched his fist—and suddenly, every remaining patient clutched their heads in agony. Blood spurted from their seven orifices as they wailed in pain.

But instead of backing down, they surged toward Lu Ce, all trying to grab that Hell Roar out of his hands!

As a pure offensive Epic-tier weapon, its power was insane.

While mowing down the puppets lunging at him, Lu Ce also had to dodge flying metal shards and iron spikes—those things were as lethal as bullets.

Then, he started cranking up Hell Roar’s energy level like a madman. He was going to give Tom something big with this third-gear custom blast.

【Warning: Due to limited physical tolerance, high single-output energy levels are not recommended.】

“Woc? You can talk?” Lu Ce glanced at Hell Roar in surprise.

【Warning: Due to limited physical tolerance, it’s recommended that single-output energy not exceed 20%.】

“Cut the crap! Denied! Max it out!”

Arrow’s already on the bowstring and you wanna hesitate now? This ain’t the time to worry about tolerances!

Everyone knows what to do in situations like this.

Ignore the warning—load it up!